Sunroof does not rise flush with roof
 

Not sure exactly which forum to put this in. It's not exactly body work but it sort of is.

Anyway, this is not a huge deal but it looks weak. The pics don't show it as well as you see it live. At the front, it rises close to perfectly flush with the roof, at the rear, worse on the driver's side, it's way down. About 7/16ths of an inch. I suspect it's in part due to old and tight rubber around the perimeter. Anyone solved this issue before?

FWIW, I've only had this car for a week or so and we had some rain during that time and the sunroof drains must be working, no issues there.

S' Roofs
 

Never had to mess with a W126 ' s (Thank God)

But GSXR tells it All for the W124

Index of /images/W124_sunroof



Hopefully, there's not too much difference.

IF that rubber gasket is the problem...
The one on the W124 is in Two pieces (Front and Rear) AND Glued together
as installed (Or Repaired) That German Rubber Glue is some Tremendous Stuff!
The Gasket is held in place by an unseen "Channel" under the lip of the
S'roof's Opening.
The use of "Yellow Monkey Snot" rubber cement during installation of the
Gasket into the Channel , Along with judicious use of Rubber Mallet would
NOT be inappropriate.
The clearance between the S'roof's Top Panel and the Gasket must be
maintained.

303 Aerospace (As Always) is your gasket's friend.

But I suspect that an "Adjustment" of the S'Roof's "Approach/Departure" angles are needed !
(See: GSXR's repairs on Lifting Arms)

Dang man, that's a wealth of info. Thanks, I'll study up on it.

Is there a mechanical adjustment? Although different, my doors (car) did not line up perfectly. There's shims on the striker deal and they were a very fine tune operation which took hours but the doors are perfectly flush now. I suspect they were never touched from the factory but I had 2 doors which were off, both rears.

I'll check it out. I have an aversion to sun roof hardware as it's been my experience that it's hard to access. I may have to go to a boneyard to practice taking the trim off.

The large rubber bushing/gasket that surrounds the edge of the roof opening looks like it may have shrunk with age. Perhaps I need to find a new one and pull the old one out and see how it responds to that, I mean first without putting the new one in.

The reason I mentioned the door striker is that I never knew there were shims behind it. I did the same deal and went to the junkyard and took a few apart and found those shims. The shims ranged from super thin, and I mean thin to some fatties. I thought the striker somehow collapsed which caused the door to "sink-in" when it took a very thin shim to "push" the door out a hair. Now, I got the vault like thud when you close the door. I never figured out the real scientific way to shim the door other than trial and error. I am sure there is a real method.

If your sunroof has the tilt option, try using that press to close it.

Worked for me, and seems to have fixed the misalignment.